Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Just keep swimming
Win the warmup:
a guide to
pregame pump-
up music
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
There are many reasons to
be excited for the upcoming
high school basketball season
that officially begins today.
For starters, there are am-
ple storylines to follow: new
coaches at Cottage Grove, a
strong returning group for the
Elkton girls, the North Doug-
las boys trying to take another
step forward (read about all
these and more in next week’s
winter sports preview!).
But the actual games are
not what this is about; this
is about something far more
important. This is about the
most exciting element of any
high school basketball game:
the pregame pump up music.
The 20 minutes before any
given game are a real joy. An
excited announcer welcomes
the home team and they run
on the court and someone hits
play on some random playlist
for the game. And as some-
one who spend a lot of time
in high school gyms, I have
grown fond of those random
playlists. But I want more
from them.
From gym to gym and team
to team, it is a real mixed bag
on any given night and they
certainly are not all good. A
good pump up mix has the
ability to set the tone for the
upcoming game and tell the
crowd about who this team is.
But instead of a well-crafted
playlist, some mixes are being
forgotten entirely and reduced
to a bland Spotify mix.
I will accept this no more.
I want teams to play the hits
and be creative and have fun
and make a great mix. Is that
too much to ask? Maybe? I’m
unsure. (This would be a good
time to note that the Cottage
Grove girls soccer team has
the best pregame mix of all
the area teams and I don’t
think it’s close. I would de-
scribe their mix as a blend of
today’s hits with a splash of
2006. They bring the fire every
single time.)
To make matters easier, I
have decided to give my unso-
licited advice on how to make
the ideal pregame pump-up
mix. If you follow these easy
steps, you, too, could be like
the Cottage Grove girls soccer
team.
Keep it fun
What really shouldn’t be
lost in a good playlist is that
this is a game and it is fun
which means it is okay to keep
things light. Every song does
not need to be a reminder
that this is the most important
moment of your life and that
everything depends on this
game. The reality is that after
some random non-conference
midweek game, there will
probably still be homework to
do and things will be fine. So
maybe ease off the overplayed
clichés such as “’Till I Col-
lapse”, “Remember the Name”
and “The Final Countdown.”
The 80s were a long time ago
According to analysis by
The New York Times, the mu-
sic that has the biggest impact
on an individual is what they
were listening to at around
the age of 13 or 14. What this
means is that that the indi-
viduals on the court, who
were born this century, were
most likely influenced by a
combination of artists like
Drake, Nicki Minaj and Ari-
ana Grande. So if a parent is
the one deciding the playlist,
just reflect and think about
if someone who was born
in 2003 would want to hear
MUSIC see B3
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/ CG SENTINEL
A cold November sun shines on the Cottage Grove swimmers as they practice at the North Douglas Memorial Pool last week. The teams are swimming in Drain while
the Warren H. Daughtery Aquatic Center undergoes a year-long renovation.
A temporary move to an
outdoor pool in Drain
hasn’t slowed Cottage Grove
swimmers
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
When it came to picking her daughter
up from swim practice, last year was easy
for Abby Zoll. Practice for the Aqua Li-
ons – the local swim club that feeds into
the Cottage Grove High School team –
was usually done by 4 p.m. Zoll would
pick her daughter up from the Warren H.
Daugherty Aquatic Center and be home
by about 4:15 p.m.; it was a simple rou-
tine.
But that’s not the case this year.
“Everything has changed,” said Zoll
who serves as the president of the Aqua
Lions; has a 10-year-old and six-year-old
on the team; and is unable to swim her-
self. (When asked to take the role for the
club, she asked with a laugh, “Don’t you
want someone who can at least doggy
paddle? Or float or something? Because
it’s not me.”)
Instead of finishing at 4 p.m. the teams
arrive back in town via bus around 7 p.m.
as the renovation of the aquatic center has
pushed the Aqua Lions and CGHS teams
south for practice at the North Douglas
Memorial Pool – an outdoor pool – in
Drain since October. Despite cold weath-
er and an additional 50 minutes on a bus
each day, the swimmers, coaches and
parents, while not thrilled with the situ-
ation, are understanding and excited for
what the renovated aquatic center will be.
“I think it’s kind of really rich for them
because it is kind of like their pilgrim-
age to the new. Because I told them, this
newness is going to be cool when you get
it…It’s going to be insane,” said Vanessa
Dalton the guardian of a 6th grade swim-
mer. “And coach says, ‘It’s like a death.’
He’s showing pictures to the kids the oth-
er day, it’s like a death and then it’s going
to have a nice fresh start. And so he’s tell-
ing the kids that it’s okay to be sad but
it’s okay because we’re going to get some
gladness.”
The renovation of the aquatic center –
including new locker rooms, pool, warm
water therapy pool and work done on
the interior and exterior of the building
– is an over $6 million project funded by
bond dollars and community donations
that is scheduled to be completed by Sep-
tember at the latest. But until then, Tyson
Pilling – the CGHS head swim coach,
water polo coach and coach of the Aqua
Lions – was in need of a place to practice
and the options were limited.
“I was like, we need to find a facility…
so let’s look at what the other facilities of-
fered and I went and I worked on it for
about a year. Looked at all the pools and
what their costs are going to be and they
are either way too expensive or there are
already existing programs,” said Pilling.
Creswell was ruled out because the
size of the pool closer mirrored a hotel
pool then a competition pool and pools
across Eugene were already in use which
meant that if Pilling was to go that route
the teams would not be able to practice
until 9 p.m.
“Start at nine o’clock at night,” said
Pilling as he emphasized the time. “And
I just thought, ‘Well that doesn’t really
sound like student-athlete to me.’ And
we’d have nobody out if we did that.”
But after looking around, it was settled
that the teams would migrate South to
Drain and practice at the North Douglas
Memorial Pool – a pool that first opened
its doors in 1948 and is typically open
from June to September
“It turned some heads among towns-
people, like what’s going on there? Be-
cause normally the place is boarded up
and you know, just looks like a cold skel-
eton there,” said North Douglas Parks
and Recreation (NDPR) district manager
Brian Cool. “But the place is alive and
SWIMMING see B2
PHOTO C/O GARRETT BRIDGENS
The renovation process starts at the Warren H. Daugherty Aquatic Center.
Winter sports begin around state
Athletes of
the Week
This week’s athletes of the week are the high school
athletes that begin competition this week. The OSAA
winter season officially kicks off today (November 28)
with many area teams in action. For a schedule of the
upcoming week in sports, see B2.